“I don’t believe in a conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrial life.”–David Duchovney

“Where are they?”–Enrico Fermi

If David Duchovney is right–and I for one agree with him–then Fermi and his paradox certainly become relevent. But it hardly proves that extraterrestrials don’t exist. It just proves we haven’t been able to confirm any signals or communication. What hampers us from doing so? The vastness of the universe? Our relatively inferior technology? Maybe they are hiding, as in Cixin Liu’s chilling novel The Dark Forrest? These are all possiblities, true. But in a strange ocurrance of the law of unintended consequences, the biggest current hindernece to finding E.T. could be bitcoin mining.

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SETI/Cryptocurrencies–This heading might look like an oxymoron. But in a bizarre turn of events, the cornering of the GPU market by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining has created a shortage that is hitting the video game market, and even the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.